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Never had she stood before such a view, where the only thing between her and the deep blue sea were lush green trees tumbling down a mountainside.
She was still standing, lost in the warmth and the ripples of sunlight, when Hugo appeared. How on earth he knew which bags belonged to which person, Holly wasn’t sure, but it was hers that he rolled in as he knocked on the door.
‘I will make a light lunch,’ he said in flawless English with only the slightest hint of a French accent. ‘Nothing special. A salad and breads for before your trip. I will have it ready in thirty minutes.’
‘Thank you. Thank you very much.’ Holly wasn’t sure how she was supposed to behave in such a situation. In the movies, they always tipped people who brought their bags and made their food, but that was in hotels, not a house. The etiquette of how it all worked was utterly beyond her.
‘Thirty minutes until food? That sounds like just enough time to check out the pool.’ Caroline pulled her swimsuit out of her coat pocket before she disappeared into the bathroom.
It took more effort than Holly expected to lift her suitcase onto the bed, although, she reasoned, it probably shouldn’t be a surprise. She’d barely eaten all day. When it was secure, she entered her code into the small, embedded padlock.
The dials jangled a little under her fingers, but the lock didn’t ping open the way it normally did.
‘Crap.’ She looked again at the bump on the side. It was bigger than she’d first thought and clearly it had done some damage. Alongside were several other smaller scrapes and bumps that hadn’t been there before. By the looks of things, her luggage had had almost as rough a journey as she had.
With a hard thump, she smacked the top of the case, just above the lock, and tried it again. Still no luck.
‘This. Is. Not. Good.’ She spoke in sync with whacking the suitcase, though even that didn’t help the lock budge.
‘Everything okay?’ Caroline stepped out of the bathroom, already dressed in her swimwear.
‘No. My suitcase won’t open. I think the lock jammed when it got dented.’
Without waiting to be asked, Caroline came to her side and jiggled the lock a bit, though, as Holly suspected, it still didn’t move.
‘Are you sure you’ve got the code right?’
‘Positive. I’ve had it since university and I haven’t changed it once. I don’t know how to.’ It was probably not something Holly should have admitted, but it was the truth. After a couple more thumps, Caroline stood back and folded her arms.
‘Well, in that case I think we’re gonna need to use a little more force.’
Two minutes later, Holly and Caroline were downstairs, the suitcase on the living room table. Evan and Tyler had joined them, and the latter was holding a large penknife in his hand.
‘I’d really like to avoid breaking the suitcase entirely.’ Holly said, with more than a slight flicker of annoyance. ‘I will need it to get my things home.’
‘There are a couple in the storage room here,’ Evan responded. ‘The previous owner must’ve left them. Worst-case scenario, you can take one of those back.’
‘Thank you.’
‘Let’s hope you don’t need it.’
Her eyes met his again, and an unexpected calm ran through her. Even if there weren’t suitcases in a cupboard somewhere, she suspected Evan would make sure she had one, anyway.
‘So, just so you guys are aware, doing things like this, I’m normally stronger than I realise.’ Tyler flexed his muscles, then clicked his neck from side to side. ‘You guys might want to stand back a bit.’
From the few words they had shared, Holly was growing more and more certain that Tyler was not her type of person. Still, if he got her suitcase open, she would be infinitely grateful. As such, she did as instructed and took a large step back.
‘The secret to opening locks like this is to use the thinnest blade you can find.’ He slid the knife into the gap beside the lock with scary expertise. ‘Yep, that’s it. I can feel it. Just another second. Here we go. Here we go.’
The pop was like an audible version of the sigh of relief which rushed through her mouth.
‘We just need to open it up, check nothing is jammed on the inside.’ Tyler reached towards the case—
‘That’s fine,’ Holly said quickly. Her packing was relatively tidy, but the last thing she wanted was her five-year-old underwear on display. ‘You’ve sorted the lock. If there’s anything else, I’m sure I’ll be able to fix it.’
‘Don’t be daft. Might as well check it all opens completely before you take it back upstairs.’
It was a good point, Holly conceded. And there wasn’t anything exciting in there, just clothes and swimsuits. Even her undies were packed right at the bottom. And so she remained quiet as Tyler slipped open the suitcase. Though as the top half folded open onto the table, she gasped.
